This week on Dungeons and Dragons…Faze Spider & cocoons!

Continuing from the small corridor which the group found, they make the narrow tunnel which is dimly light by glowing but seemingly harmless fungi. As the group make their way along, they can hear goblin chatter through the wall, initially, they do not seem to hear us. However, Agrippina, not yet accustomed to her new armour ends up making some audible noise. There is a silence of the voices and the group pauses holding their breath. Then a rasping voice calls from the other side, “We know you’re there, we will find you!” The corridor is quite narrow with just enough room for two people abreast, with very little room to manoeuvre. The air is damp and musty. Vorn takes the lead with Vandal closely behind. Aralon and Agrippina stay to the middle with Thraback and Lucas taking up the rear. Moving up the corridor, the floor suddenly gives way beneath our adventurers with all managing to evade this trap except for Thraback and Vandal, just clinging to the ledge at the last minute. The groups see below them an intricate and large spider’s web. A shiver runs down everyone’s spines. Lucas while jumping from the receding floor, stumbles and falls down on to the web but manages to keep himself from getting stuck. Vandal and Aralon quickly throws a rope to him which he secures around his waist. They both pull him up from the cavern. The enormous imposing creator of the web slinks its way up towards the group, greedily eyeing us all. Yet it does not seem to be acting as one would expect, it doesn’t lunge for us straight away. Vandal recognises that the creature has a higher than normal intelligence with its own personality. We are reminded of the large box containing a ‘gift’ from our adventure last week. The spider seems to be sizing us up, we are frozen, somewhat unsure of what to do. Agrippina knows the spider has a very potent poison dripping from its fangs. These types of spiders are from the Underdark, often kept as pets or used as gifts. During our delay the spider takes initiative and decides it needs feeding, lunging straight as our high elf. Thraback strikes the first blow with his longbow, causing black ooze to spurt from the injured spider. Vandal deals damage with his axe allowing Lucas to force the spider off him quickly using his Shocking Grasp, causing it to recoil. Suddenly the spider completely disappears. The group stand dumbfounded as we realise this is a Faze Spider and we wait for it to reappear to make our move. It suddenly drops onto our Dwarf and sinks its poisonous teeth into his neck, but his resistance allows him to fight off its effects. It quickly vanishes again. The cave is quiet and still, only our heavy breathing can be heard as we wait. Lucas is pounced on and is poisoned, causing him to slump to the ground. Agrippina quickly moves to assist using her Lesser Restoration to cure him of the poison. Vandal, having enough of this trickery, brings down his axe successfully to the head of the spider ending the battle. Vandal takes the opportunity to harvest the venom and gives it to Vorn. He, Thraback and Aralon climb down into the cavern where the spider was. Aralon slips and, Thraback although seeing an opportunity to aid him, lets him fall. They find 6 cocoons encircled tightly in the spider web. All are dead except for one goblin. Vandal discovers this goblin who tells us where to find King Grol. He also tells them that Green Fang the dragon was coming for them as they had lost the chest of valuable items he had left in their care. The three cast glances at each other but keep quiet as to their knowledge of this casket. He tells us that “He has grown large and grows stronger by the day, he has left Thunder Tree”. Thraback decides that that is enough information and cruelly snaps his spine and neck much to the distaste of the other party members. They climb back up and relate this to the others. We continue along the corridor where the fungi are becoming more numerous, lighting the way. We come to a dead end but more voices can be heard speaking in common. A gruff voice mutters angrily, “Stop arguing, what will our Dwarf guest think or say? He will be coming soon and his vengeance will be fierce!” Vorn stealthily hunts for a lever in the wall and find a brick jutting out. He pushes this initially, activating a small trap cutting his finger, allowing the poison to enter his blood stream. Agrippina notices this and quickly cures the effects. He slides the door open and steals a look into the room beyond. Although he initially doesn’t tell the group what he sees, he eventually relents and tell us what awaits us. We have come across a throne room with a raging fire and quite a large wooden crate. We see a large rough looking Bug Bear who we can assume is King Grol. He is arguing with two Ogres and is guarded by four mean looking Hobgoblins. Behind the throne, we see Gundrun Rockseeker, our dwarf friend who we have come to rescue. He is hoisted up and tied by his hands, badly injured and bleeding. He likely does not have long left to live. The team quickly comes up with a strategy believing time is of the essence. Lucas and Aralon take the charge by running into the room surprising our enemies. Aralon casts Burning Hands while Lucas casts a devastating Thunder Wave towards the Hobgoblins. The four Hobgoblins are burned and blown back in spectacular fashion and killed instantly. Vorn is able to lure one of the Ogres out of the room away from the group where he is able to attack and quickly hide again. The rest of the group focus our fire on this one Ogre, hoping to finish it off quickly. King Grol, noticing our rather large half – orc taunts him into battle. Thraback breaks into a murderous rage and dashes towards him, almost getting caught in a similar trap as the previous corridor, but manages to evade it. The ogres are entangled with the group dealing some major attacks to the group. Vorn is still able to sneakily attack from a safer position. Thraback is holding his own against Grol. In the midst of this Agrippina moves through the chaos over to Gundrun in the hopes of healing him. She takes him down from the cross but quickly regrets it. The images of Gundrun melts away and appears to be a doppelganger, a shape-shifter. The creature stabs Agrippina in the ribs dealing considerable damage and she falls to the ground. Lucas quickly moves up to help the fellow Cleric dealing damage to the doppelganger but getting seriously injured himself in the process. While all this is happening, the last surviving ogre manages to hit Aralon, knocking him out cold, Death, who he had summoned to aid us, disappears. Vorn moves in to attack the Ogre and to guard Aralon against further danger. Vandal moves in to assist Thraback with King Grol, he makes an impact and is hit back. Thraback in his rage deals the final bloody blow to King Grol and he collapses to the ground in a bloody mess. Agrippina limps away from the doppelganger to avoid further attacks, knowing Lucas has her back despite his injuries. Lucas swings his great sword decisively, bringing it down on the head of the doppelganger, with Thraback moving to make the final bow. As its life ebbs away, it switches between all the different shapes it had taken during its life. Vorn, though badly injured by the remaining Ogre, stabs his rapier defiantly through his heart. The battle is over. Vandal quickly moves to open the chest where he can hear a muffled voice coming from. It is the real Gundrun. As we are speaking to him, we hear a cackling laugh, coming from close by. Suddenly 20 goblins rush into the Throne Room along with a number of hobgoblins. The group freezes in terror and surprise. Then just as suddenly, a deafening crash comes from the roof above them. The roof looks like it will cave in on top of them. Then a booming voice calls out, “Deal breakers!” More next week!